| Type | Public, majority-owned by Konami[1] |
|---|---|
| Traded as | JASDAQ: 4822 |
| Industry | Computer and video games |
| Fate | To be shut down by parent company |
| Founded | May 18, 1973 |
| Headquarters | Midtown Tower, Tokyo Midtown Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo |
| Key people | Hidetoshi Endo (President and CEO) |
| Products | Bomberman Bonk Adventure Island Dungeon Explorer series Tengai Makyou (Far East of Eden) Momotaro Dentetsu Mario Party series Sonic Shuffle Milon's Secret Castle |
| Revenue | ¥11.8 billion (2005) |
| Owner(s) | Konami Corporation |
| Employees | 500 |
| Parent | Konami |
| Website | hudson.co.jp |
Hudson Soft Company, Limited (株式会社ハドソン, kabushiki-gaisha Hadoson), formally known as Honeybee Soft Company, Limited (株式会社ハニービー・ソフト), is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo.[2] It was founded on May 18, 1973. Initially, Hudson dealt with personal computer products, but has expanded to the development and publishing of video games, mobile content, and video game peripherals. As of 2003, the company employs over 500 people, with offices in Sapporo, Tokyo, and California. Hudson Soft is owned by Konami Corporation.[1]
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Hudson Soft Ltd. was founded in Sapporo, Japan on May 18, 1973 by brothers Yuji and Hiroshi Kudo. The founders grew up admiring trains, and named the business after their favorite, the Hudson locomotives (especially Japanese C62). Hudson began as a shop selling telecommunications devices and art photographs. In September 1975, Hudson Soft began selling personal computer-related products, and in March 1978 started developing and selling video game packages.[3]
Hudson became Nintendo's first third-party software vendor for its Family Computer. Hudson's second title for this console, Lode Runner, sold 1.2 million units after its 1984 release. The business continued developing video games on the Famicom and other platforms (NEC PC-8801 MSX, ZX Spectrum), and was reorganized as Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. in November 1984. In July 1985, a "caravan" was held at sixty venues throughout Japan, a first for the video game industry. Bomberman was released in December of this year on the Famicom and was considered a "big hit" by Hudson Soft.[4]
In July 1987, Hudson developed the "C62 System" and collaborated with Nippon Electric Corporation to develop the PC Engine video game console. It achieved a second-best success to Famicom in Japan, but its release as the TurboGrafx-16 in North America had less market-share than Nintendo's new Super Nintendo and Sega's new Genesis. Throughout 1990, Hudson Soft developed and published video games for an array of systems. In 1994, the 32-bit semiconductor chip "HuC62" was independently developed by Hudson and used in NEC's PC-FX video game console.
In December 2000, Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. entered the stockmarket, listing on Nippon New Market Hercules, formerly known as NASDAQ Japan Exchange. This led to Konami purchasing a stock allocation of 5.6 million shares in August 2001, becoming the company's largest shareholder. Within the terms of this purchase, Hudson acquired the Sapporo division of Konami Computer Entertainment Studio, renaming it Hudson Studio.
In April 2005, capital was increased via an allocation of 3 million shares from a third party. Konami Corporation, holding 53.99% of all Hudson stock, became Hudson's majority shareholder and parent company. Hudson continue to self publish, although works closely with Konami.
In January 2011, Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. was acquired by and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Konami.[1]
It was a division made by acquiring Konami Computer Entertainment Studio's Sapporo division.
On 2001-07-26, Hudson Soft announced the acquisition of the Sapporo division of Konami Computer Entertainment Studio.[5]
With headquarters in South San Francisco,[6] Hudson Soft USA was Hudson Soft's previous North American publishing division operated from 1988 to 1995. It had published video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy.
Hudson Soft USA subsequently closed down in 1995 before being replaced by Hudson Entertainment, Inc. in 2003.[7]
It was Hudson Soft's North American publishing division from 2003 to 2011. In November 2003, Hudson established Hudson Entertainment, Inc. as a wholly owned subsidiary in San Mateo, California.[8] On July 23, 2003, Hudson Soft announced it had started its North American mobile phone Java game service, GameMaster, for AT&T's mMode, effective on July 28, 2003.[9]
Hudson Entertainment ceased operations on March 31, 2011.[10]
Hudson Soft has released video games since 1978, with series such as Bomberman, Bonk, and Adventure Island.
Hudson continues to release long-running video game series in Japan. Tengai Makyou (Far East of Eden) is a classic RPG set in a fictional era with Japanese themes. The series is up to number 4, and is considered a hit in Japan. The second version of the game was widely regarded as one the best RPGs ever released, ranked 12th by Famitsu among all games released in Japan. Hudson Soft also created the long-running and critically acclaimed game Momotaro Dentetsu, a board game with locomotive themes. The comical game is already up to version 16 in Japan. Hudson has recently re-released some of their first hit games for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan, including Adventure Island, Star Soldier, and Lode Runner.
Hudson has a long history of creating games for other publishers. The most notable of these is the Mario Party series, created for Nintendo. They developed installments one through eight of the series, however Mario Party 9 is currently being developed exclusively by Nintendo. Hudson also developed Fuzion Frenzy 2 for Microsoft, which was released for the Xbox 360 in January 2007.
On March 23, 2006, at the GDC Conference in California, it was announced by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata that Nintendo would offer virtual backward compatibility of the TurboGrafx-16 with their game console, the Wii.
During an interview with IGN on May 11, 2006, Hudson Soft stated that they were currently in the process of acquiring the rights to games developed by now-defunct game developers.[11]
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